Page 113 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

Saudi Arabia and Iran: Outside Pressures 89
The Political Resident recommended some form of help, arguing
that British relations with the Coast would deteriorate if the British
Government showed an attitude of detachment.62 Both the Foreign
Office and the Government of India, however, were against any
form of direct intervention on behalf of Ahmad; they decided that
unobtrusive pressure on Iran, applied locally, would be the only
solution. The solution proved useful, for in September 1928 an
Iranian envoy from Hcnjam invited Ahmad and his followers on
the Coast to return, an offer the shaykh accepted.63
The second major incident also occurred in 1928, and brought
Iranian-Arab relations to breaking-point. It had much more serious
repercussions than the expulsion of the shaykh of Henjam, since
it directly affected the safety and property of many people living
in the shaykhdoms. The central issue was the ownership of Tunb
and the methods used by the Iranian Government to stake its
claim. In July 1928 a jalbut (a small passenger vessel) carrying
travellers, including women and children, was seized on the southern
side of Tunb by a motor vessel that the Iranian customs had been
operating from Tunb for two months. The jalbut belonged to Badr
bin Muhammad of Dubai and had called at Tunb on its route
from Dubai to Khasab. The passengers and the jalbut were taken
to Lingah, where the women were stripped of their jewellery, and
money and other possessions were confiscated.61
This had immediate repercussions along the Coast, particularly
in Dubai, where the outrage felt was channelled into plans for
an armed naval force to release the women and avenge the injustice.
The Residency Agent managed to dissuade the people from going
against their treaty relations by taking any such retaliatory measures;
they decided instead to rely on the force of the British assistance
promised in the treaties of 1820 and 1892, and in the assurances
given by Curzon in his durbar address of 1903.65 The Political
Resident urged action supporting the Trucial rulers, saying of them,
‘we punish them quickly when they arc in the wrong, and they
demand equally quick protection when they are attacked’.66 The
reaction of the Government of India was also strong. ‘It is in
itself offence against humanity, and in case of Moslem(s) an almost
unbearable outrage, specially for Arabs who despise the Persians.’67
A few days after the jalbut had been seized, HMS Lupin went
to Dubai and arrived just in time to prevent an outbreak of rioting,
for the rulers of the shaykhdoms had been finding it particularly
difficult to restrain the husbands of the detained women, and the
people had reached the end of their tether. While the Admiralty
and the India Office were discussing the possibility of sending
a gunboat to Lingah, Parr, the British Charge d’Affair'cs in Tehran
made urgent representations to the Chief of Customs, who claimed